1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to liquid heating electrical appliance, particularly to a coffeemaker of the drip type wherein water is heated within a housing and pumped to a spreader to discharge into a supported carafe. The coffeemaker housing may support a basket filter assembly or a separate assembly may be supported directly on the carafe with the hot water dripping through the coffee to produce brewed coffee in the carafe in the conventional manner. The present invention is directed to an improved thermostat mount assembly that provides for fast thermostat response for accurate heating of the base of the electrical appliance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In electrical appliances, particularly drip coffeemakers, there is provided a basket and filter assembly that performs efficiently at maximum capacity. Generally, they provide a heated metallic base on which the carafe rests and which is controlled by a thermostat below the base to sense the base temperature and control it for a "keeps warm" function of the brewed coffee. Various thermostats have been used to touch the base in one form or another and sense its temperature and control accordingly. A typical thermostat is a disc snap action thermostat which rests directly against the base or may contact along the side of the base in the area of the heater, to sense the base temperature and function accordingly. The disc-type thermostat is quite commonly used in such electrical appliances and particularly in coffeemakers. Improved thermostats of elongated plastic packaged bimetals have become available at lower cost and generally involve a sealed sensor element within the package which element senses heat through an opening in one of the package walls. It is customarily mounted against the appliance wall in the heated area or pressed against the base where the temperature is sensed through the opening to activate the internal bimetal and make and break the circuit in a standard manner.
These lower cost plastic enclosed thermostats operate well but tests have shown that the reaction time is unsatisfactory and it is desired that these cheaper and more compact thermostats be modified to provide a faster reaction time and thus more satisfactory operation of the controlling electrical circuit especially in the "keeps warm" feature in the heated base of drip coffeemakers. The present invention is directed to such an improvement and is not limited to coffeemakers but is applicable to any heating appliance. It is especially appropriate to the use of the well known drip coffeemaker and will be described in connection therewith. A thermostat mounting provides a "finger" or projection that reaches in to the thermostat through its side wall opening for very close positioning with the bimetal thereby providing substantially reduced reaction time and consequent control of the electric heating circuit.